China urged to protect underwater cables amid growing fears of ocean sabotage

Prominent policy journal says Beijing should pass a law to close the gap between traditional maritime law and modern grey-zone warfare

Beijing has been urged to create its own law to protect its underwater fibre-optic cables, as global fears grow over sabotage of critical ocean infrastructure.

The recommendation by Shanghai Maritime University law professor Guo Ran comes amid growing threats to the undersea cables that carry about 99 per cent of global intercontinental data, including in critical chokepoints such as the Red Sea and the Baltic Sea.

In recent years, China has introduced the Data Security Law and the Cybersecurity Law to tighten its grip on the digital realm, but these legal frameworks have focused on data processing and cross-border data flows, while physical seabed infrastructure has remained largely unregulated.